I had a pretty similar reaction, I was really expecting something new and fresh. Instead a lot of it was rehashed from the original movies, which kind of defeats the purpose of rebooting the series. At least IMO.
First of all why is Auturo Gatti playing James T. Kirk? Karl Urban really was channeling his inner Judge Dredd. Every time he talked or was on screen all I could think about is he's doing Judge Dredd. I'd much prefer to have Karl Urban play James T. Kirk.
I Just saw Wrath of Khan yesterday. Man it seems like they didn't change too much in this new one from that movie. The only exception was (the old) Khan was far more animated and emotional than Benedict's Khan. Karl Urban really hit Bones' character well. Shatner's Kirk really had that presence.
Shatner's best performance if you ask me. Khan's actions make a lot more sense in ST 2 if you ask me.
I think Abrams did a better job in making Khan in ST2 because dude just seems stupid and reckless in Wrath of Khan.
I agree. Most people who revere Wrath of Khan, and Montalban's performance in particular, do so out of good memories, but have not really watched that movie in a while. It still holds up well, my son and I watched the whole thing the other day right after watching Into Darkness, so he would understand better what he had just seen. But the Khan in WoK was just arrogant and over-confident. Megalomaniacal, petty, and pretty much your candy-coated cheeseball movie villain - nothing like the 'great performance' everyone seems to remember. Now don't get me wrong, I am not knocking Montalban's performance or the movie - I love WoK as much as anyone - but Khan in WoK was written and delivered as a cartoon character rather than a person with any particular depth, and Montalban played it with relish. Cumberbatch's version, however, was both written and performed as a much more calculating and capable movie villain, one who not only had more depth, but was also very close to being sympathetic, which Montalban's character never was, nor was he intended to be.
^^Yeah surprisingly WoK really help up with time. I would pay to see that in the movies if it came out today (CGI aside). It also seemed like Abrams took the "I have and always will be your friend" theme and made 2 movies out of it. So it appears that Khan looked nothing like an Indian in WoK, just like ST2... though I did see clips of a young Khan from the series and he kinda sorta almost, but not really, looked Indian. So I can understand Khan looking like he's from Mexico City in WoK. In ST2, however, Abrams didn't even try.
Yeah,you'd think a superior intellect would see through the "Every ship has the other ship's super-uper secret code in its data banks, so all we got to do is type in their code and drop their shields" and "days would seem like hours" stuff.
I think they show that Khan isn't thinking clearly when his 2nd in command tries to convince him to just leave with the ship and Genesis.
I just don't understand in Star Trek:TOS Khan didn't murder all the crew and take the ship to begin with. If he was able to rip open one of their doors with his bare hands I don't think anyone could really stop him. Also many lulz to be had acting-wise in that episode.
Several things with the original Khan 1. He had just spent like 20~30 on a basic prison planet - he was not fresh out the box like ST2 2. Original Khan never got the full info on modern tech like ST2 [That Khan actually had access to advanced experimental tech] So his actions were more explainable and believable. ST2 - Can teleport to Klingon homeworld while being shot at but could not figure out how to get his 72 friends free. Rocket River
My wife and I finally got to see this last night in 3D: Spoiler Spock's "Kaaaaaahn!" was extremely hard to pull off w/o being cheesy. Kind of like Vader's "NOOOOOOOOO!". That being said, it wasn't completely awkward and was as well done as JJA could have hoped. Not sure if anyone else caught it, but Spock's battle w/ emotion throughout the film was very well done. In fact, wished they would have focused a few more minutes on it. Watching Spock and Khan fight it out was also fun to watch. Overall, I give 9 out of 10. I liked it slightly better than the 1st. Will definitely buy a 3D Blu-Ray copy when it comes out.
This movie wasn't really all that. I am curious to see what J.J Abhrams do to the star wars universe though.
Star Wars, Star Trek, the actors, Abrams - it should all be a TV series man. It's television caliber talent across the board. It'd make more money, it'd make more people happy, it'd be a better experience. The big budgets are important though, especially for Star Wars.
Abrams shoots everything like an NBC 1 hour fairy tale drama show and all of the Star Trek actors are what, c-level at best? I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Star Trek and I'm not trying to disrespect the cast, but the actor playing Spock does American Horror Story as it is. And the Star Trek villains aren't mainstays. Not sure who's been cast for Star Wars.
